Green MLA Andrew Weaver on the campaign trail in Oak Bay. The rookie MLA is a formidable presence whether on the floor of the legislature or on social media, says Sun political affairs columnist Vaughn Palmer.

Photograph by: LYLE STAFFORD
, Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA — When Andrew Weaver got up to deliver his inaugural speech as the first Green member of the legislature earlier this month, he recalled — to telling effect — his previous appearance on the floor of the B.C. house.

The date was Feb. 19, 2008, the day that the then government of Premier Gordon Campbell delivered its greenest budget, containing the carbon tax and other innovative measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight human-induced climate change.

Weaver was an invited guest of the government that day, having been a key member of the team that advised the government on measures that drew favourable notices from across the continent.

“That day I watched as the Liberal government laid out a vision for B.C. that redefined the legacy we would leave to our children,” said the University of Victoria climatologist turned rookie MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

“That budget stood as a turning point for B.C. not simply because it put us on a path to lead the continent in climate policy but because it signalled an end to either-or thinking that pits the environment against the economy.”

All by way of expressing regret that the Liberals were turning away from the trail-blazing path he’d helped them to chart. Exhibit A being the Christy Clark-led government’s drive to develop a new industry based on the export of liquefied natural gas.

Weaver, in his brief but determined foray into provincial politics, has made himself one of the harshest critics of the government’s enthusiasm for LNG. He’s called it a “pipe dream” that is not likely to come to fruition without a hefty provincial subsidy.

“To base our economy on LNG is to risk subjecting B.C.’s economy to the boom-and-bust roller-coaster of global fossil fuel pricing, with all its twists and turns and drops. Meanwhile, investors are increasingly highlighting the possibility of a global carbon bubble and the real economic risks that surround it,” Weaver said in his July 3 address to the house.

But that’s not the half of his objections: “Even if we defy the odds, coast through the boom-and-bust cycles and breeze through the carbon bubble, we cannot achieve our provincial carbon targets while we double down on LNG.

“The carbon emissions associated with LNG development are simply too high to allow us to meet those targets that are a matter of law under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act.”

Weaver, who decided to run for the Greens in part because of his disappointment with the Liberals, underscored the point by hearkening back to a quote from the 2008 budget speech, as delivered by then minister of finance Carole Taylor: “We can be the generation that had it all and let it slip away, or we can seize this opportunity which is before us to be the generation of British Columbians who made the right decisions, who chose to take action and, by doing so, showed their respect for the earth, for the atmosphere, for those who came before us and for those who will follow in the decades to come.”

After such rough treatment of the Liberals, Weaver surprised some observers a week later when he voted in favour of the budget. It also provoked accusations of “hypocrisy,” particularly from New Democratic Party supporters.

Weaver fired back on social media, posting a three-point justification for the move on his Facebook page.

One: “The B.C. Liberals proposed this same budget prior to the election and got re-elected.” Two: “Over the course of my campaign, I said numerous times that I would work with whichever party formed government.”

Three: “I also stated that I wanted to do politics differently. ... I feel that I better serve (my) constituents and the citizens of B.C. by supporting the overall budget, thereby showing confidence in the newly elected government, while continuing to raise concerns about the aspects I find troublesome.”

He also engaged his critics on Twitter, the site where the exchanges are necessarily pithy because confined to 140 characters per entry.

Hadn’t Weaver said “We must be wary of this government?” Yes, he replied, but that “doesn’t mean being against everything just for the sake of it. Way too much of that in B.C.”

How could he be so strongly opposed to the move into liquefied natural gas, then vote for the budget? “Perhaps you should actually read the budget,” he tweeted back. “There are no LNG revenues in budget. That is a long-term pipedream.”

Not the first time that Weaver has found himself at odds with New Democrats, of course. The NDP opposed the carbon tax five years ago as well, giving rise to a split within their own party, whereby green-leaning supporters actually endorsed the Liberals in the 2009 election.

The NDP’s less-than-clean hands on that issue ensured that when Weaver broke with the Liberals, he did so as a Green, not a New Democrat. After preaching that it was “disrespectful to voters” to raise concerns about vote-splitting where the Liberals and Conservatives were concerned, NDP leader Adrian Dix dispatched former Premier Mike Harcourt to Weaver’s riding on the eve of the recent election to warn about — yes — the threat of “vote splitting.”

None of which kept Weaver from securing a beachhead for the Greens on the floor of the legislature, where, if the recent session is any gauge, he can challenge the assumptions of both major parties.

Green MLA Andrew Weaver on the campaign trail in Oak Bay. The rookie MLA is a formidable presence whether on the floor of the legislature or on social media, says Sun political affairs columnist Vaughn Palmer.

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